A firefighter's hands are the most important tool in fighting fire and rescuing people from fire emergencies. Firefighting presents many different types of hazards against which firefighters must be protected. For example, a firefighter will encounter extreme heat, direct contact with fire and flash-flames, blood-borne pathogens, chemicals, water, steam, and the like. Furthermore, gloves used by firefighters need to protect from injury from puncture and cuts. Therefore, adequate protection of the hands is paramount and, accordingly, a firefighter's glove must offer resistance against these hazards. Thick, heavy-duty gloves are the standard for firefighting, which are very bulky, including inflexible shells and insulation, and are formed from cut-and-sewn manufacturing processes.
However, converse to these heavy-duty strength requirements, gloves for firefighters must now also offer flexibility, tactility for fingers and thumb (for instance, because of the need to operate small, electronic controls, gas sensors, flashlights, dead-bolt locks, knobs, and the like, some having dimensions as small as ⅜ inch). The glove of a firefighter must also permit high dexterity, including finger dexterity and palm dexterity, and excellent grip properties for grasping and controlling objects with strength, such as, but not limited to, hoselines and nozzles, ladder rungs, halligan tools, personal escape ropes, and the like in order for firefighters to perform duties quickly, safely, and adequately while exerting a high amount of force onto heavy or light objects while wearing the glove.
In addition, firefighters must be able to don and doff gloves easily and quickly, particularly while moist. Moreover, the gloves must maintain softness and pliability after withstanding many usage cycles, i.e., hot-cold, wet-dry. In addition to these in-use functional requirements, an aesthetically pleasing glove that is easily cleaned, and can be laundered and decontaminated repeatedly, without loss of softness and pliability is needed. In sum, gloves must protect the hands of firefighters against multiple and varied hazards without compromising movement and dexterity.
To date, there is no flame-resistant, protective, heavy-duty firefighter's glove that also offers high dexterity and flexibility, while remaining easy to don and doff while wet. It would therefore be a significant advance in the art to provide a glove addressing these previously unmet needs.